Norwalk, CT - On Sunday, May 7, 2017, 2-4 p.m., in collaboration with Rev. Father Richard Cipolla and the Parish of St. Mary’s in Norwalk, CT, the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum will feature, Heavenly Notes: St. Mary’s at the Mansion, a rare fundraising concert highlighting the church’s outstanding professional choir. The event will include a reception with light refreshments and tour of the Mansion’s new exhibits.

The performance will feature music from the Victorian and Edwardian eras led by Organist and Choirmaster David Hughes. As described in Florence Mathews’ diary, there was a longstanding relationship between St. Mary’s and the Mathews family, as the church was central to the life of many of the servants who lived and worked at the Mansion during the Edwardian era. Built in 1848, and originally located on Chapel Street in Norwalk, St. Mary’s burned to the ground and was replaced by a magnificent Gothic Revival stone church in 1871 on West Avenue, half a mile from the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion. It was recently restored by award-winning John Canning & Co. who also restored the Library at the Mansion.

Elizabeth Weaver (photography: Manning Gurney/contributed)

Soprano Elizabeth Baber Weaver has performed and recorded masterpieces of Renaissance music as a member of the vocal chamber group Pomerium. She has appeared as a guest artist with the acclaimed quartet, New York Polyphony, including their Grammy-nominated album, Sing thee Nowell. She has received critical praise in The New York Times and in The Washington Post for her "angelic brightness and dedication."

Charles Weaver (photography: Manning Gurney/contributed)

Bass Charles Weaver performs on early plucked-string instruments both as a recitalist and as an accompanist. He is on the faculty and has also been a vocal coach at the Juilliard School and for the Yale Baroque Opera Project. Chamber music appearances include Early Music New York, Hesperus, Piffaro, Parthenia, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Folger Consort, and Blue Heron, to name a few. He is on the faculty of the New York Continuo Collective and is assistant director of the St. Mary's Student Schola program in Norwalk, Conn..

David J. Hughes, a native of Stamford, Connecticut, is Organist & Choirmaster at St. Mary Church in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he directs a professional, a volunteer and several children’s choirs. He has led the St. Mary’s Student Schola at World Youth Day in Madrid in 2011 and is an active composer. Mr. Hughes has written extensively for choir and organ including film scores and documentaries such as Navis Pictures’ St. Bernadette of Lourdes.
Mr. Hughes is a member of the board of the Church Music Association of America, and serves as a chant instructor and the director of new music at the CMAA’s annual Summer Music Colloquium. He is director of music for the annual Roman Forum Summer Symposium at Lake Garda in the north of Italy. Mr. Hughes is a graduate of Yale College.
Reservations Required – Limited Seating. Tickets to Concert: $30 for 3rd rows and up- $50 & $100 for second row/front row seating; Reception: $10. The Museum’s 2017 cultural and educational programs are made possible in part by generous funding from LMMM’s Founding Patrons: The Estate of Mrs. Cynthia Clark Brown, LMMM’s 2017 Season Distinguished Benefactors: The Maurice Goodman Foundation, 2017 LMMM Distinguished Benefactors for Education: GE and Fairfield County’s Community Foundation. The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum is a National Historic Landmark. For more information on schedules and programs please visit www.lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, e-mail info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, or call 203-838-9799.